How likely is that you'll follow an imperfect link : Off-Topic Chit-Chat : TranslatorsCafe.com Forums

Mother tongue: Polish
Joined: February 18, 2003
Location: Poland

How likely is that you'll follow an imperfect link

The purpose of this poll is to conduct a little comparative study of my own laziness in responding to problems with links posted by others.

I myself sometimes post links that do not work for a variety of reasons (they may be broken, no longer lead to the original page, they may not be clickable, etc.). Most of the time, googling a single quoted phrase makes it possible, though, to locate the article in question anyway, provided one is so interested in its content as to bother to search it on the Web.

Of all the links posted on TC, particularly outside your usual interests, how likely is it that when presented with a link that does not lead you straight to an article, in a clickable form, you will start a search by copying and pasting to locate that article yourself on the Web? My vote is in.

Jacek

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Posted:
May 5, 2008 6:05 AM

Post #145141—in reply to #145138

Maxi Schwarz-Bastami

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Mother tongues: English, German
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Location: Canada

RE: How likely is that you'll follow an imperfect link

Generally speaking in TC discussion forums I am interested in original thought, so unless the link leads to your personal blog I would probably not bother. If the link is to information that I need or want, I'll expend the effort.

Maxi

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Posted:
May 5, 2008 11:42 AM

Post #145174—in reply to #145138

David Tucker
TC Master

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Mother tongue: English
Posts: 563
Joined: August 3, 2003
Location: United States

RE: How likely is that you'll follow an imperfect link

I voted seldom. Like Maxi, if the subject matter is something of personal interest, or I need the particular information, I would give some extra effort.

David

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Posted:
May 5, 2008 12:18 PM

Post #145178—in reply to #145138

Nanna Mercer

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Mother tongues: English, Danish
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Location: Denmark

RE: How likely is that you'll follow an imperfect link

Originally written by Jacek Krankowski on May 5, 2008 11:52 AM

If outside my interests: seldom.

If it's a subject I'm interested in, I almost always check further.

Nanna

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Posted:
May 6, 2008 4:48 AM

Post #145222—in reply to #145178

Mother tongue: Polish
Joined: February 18, 2003
Location: Poland

RE: How likely is that you'll follow an imperfect link

Thank you all for comforting me that my reactions are not that different from a psychological norm: If presented with causes that are not already of primary interest to us, the chance to get us interested in them is most of the time lost if the opinions mentioned are buried behind a link that does not lead us right to the core of the matter (because the poster did not make it clickable, for example, or the source requires a registration). In my spare off-topic chit-chat time, would I ever bother to copy a non-clickable link to the following phrase, or the phrase itself, to then paste it into my browser: "After analyzing 55 years of soccer results, researchers at Plymouth and Durham universities in England found that teams with red jerseys fared significantly better than teams of other colors"? No! And I am fully aware of how much I may be missing...

Jacek

[Edited by Jacek Krankowski on May 6, 2008 4:50 AM]

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Posted:
May 6, 2008 5:03 AM

Post #145225—in reply to #145222

Nanna Mercer

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Mother tongues: English, Danish
Posts: 7152
Joined: February 12, 2005
Location: Denmark

RE: How likely is that you'll follow an imperfect link

Originally written by Jacek Krankowski on May 6, 2008 10:48 AM

... And I am fully aware of how much I may be missing...

Hmn...unless you click on the various links, I don't see how you can possibly know...

Nanna

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Posted:
May 6, 2008 5:39 AM

Post #145228—in reply to #145225

Mother tongue: Polish
Joined: February 18, 2003
Location: Poland

RE: How likely is that you'll follow an imperfect link

Well, that's an interesting language point, Nanna. In English, we often use "may" where a straightforward indicative mood, with no modal verbs, is used in other languages. In the case at hand, I played on that difference: When saying "I am fully aware of how much I may be missing," I did not mean to say "I am fully aware of how much I am missing." I don't know whether and what I am missing, but I know that I may be missing it.

Jacek

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Posted:
May 6, 2008 6:28 AM

Post #145232—in reply to #145228

Nanna Mercer

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Mother tongues: English, Danish
Posts: 7152
Joined: February 12, 2005
Location: Denmark

RE: How likely is that you'll follow an imperfect link

Originally written by Jacek Krankowski on May 6, 2008 11:39 AM

When saying "I am fully aware of how much I may be missing," I did not mean to say "I am fully aware of how much I am missing." I don't know whether and what I am missing, but I know that I may be missing it.

Yes, indeed, I noticed the wording. Be that as it may, I'm on my way out for a bike ride in the beautiful May sunshine, and I may or may not get back to you about may.

Nanna

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Posted:
May 6, 2008 6:30 AM

Post #145233—in reply to #145228

Carmen Manetoiu

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Location: United Kingdom

RE: How likely is that you'll follow an imperfect link

Hi to everyone,

I have to admit that I consider unclickable links to be one of the most annoying things that can make you waste time when you need to sort something out really quick. You know the solution to your problem is there, you just can't access it.

When you complain about it, people will just throw more links at you ...it happened to me once when I was trying to do a website word count. It took me around two hours to follow different links as indicated by helpful colleagues(some clickable, some not) in order to download all the software I needed for this and ended up with an unrealistic word count.

And speaking of links, can somebody suggest a link that heps you perform website word counts accurately?

Thanks a lot!

Carmen

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Posted:
May 7, 2008 4:36 AM

Post #145323—in reply to #145141

Mother tongue: Polish
Joined: February 18, 2003
Location: Poland

RE: How likely is that you'll follow an imperfect link

Originally written by Maxi Schwarz-Bastami on May 5, 2008 12:05 PM

... unless the link leads to your personal blog I would probably not bother.

In exceptional cases, like when it's forbidden or difficult to travel to certain areas of the world, I would also follow a blog, for example http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/ or Post #106960

Jacek